82 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINN&US 



Linnaeus appears to have been seriously ill on this 

 occasion, as both his biographers l remark that the skill 

 of Stobaeus saved his life. His own diary says differ- 

 ently : ' The arm immediately became so swollen and 

 inflamed that his life was endangered, especially as, 

 Stobaeus being about to set off for the mineral waters 



of Helsingborg, he was left to the care of . Snell, 



however, having made an incision the whole length of 

 his arm, restored him to his former health.' 2 



Linnaeus had lived with Stobasus about a year, 

 and the professor gave him hopes of becoming his heir, 

 as he had no children. 3 But now, in order to recover 

 his health, Carl went to pass the summer vacation with 

 his parents in Smaland, and here he met his first friend, 

 Dr. Rothman ; it is very probable he went to Wexio to 

 see him, and the doctor advised him to leave Lund for 

 Upsala, as a superior school for medicine and botany. 

 Linnaeus, too, greatly desired to see more of the world 

 and widen his learning, and he resolved to go to Upsala. 

 How to compass it was another matter. 



His mother sighed to see Carl employ his whole 

 time in glueing plants on paper, to the delight of little 

 Samuel, who also loved plants better than Latin, and at 

 last she abandoned her long-cherished hope of seeing Carl 

 become a preacher. Linnaeus's young mother had been 

 passionately fond of flowers, and was always melancholy 

 from the frosts of October until spring; yet she now 



1 Stoever and Pulteney. 2 Diary. 



8 Ibid. 



